Dove Movement for Self Esteem

• Goal: The goal of the Dove Movement for Self Esteem is to help aid in building young girls self esteem. They also want to help in aiding girls to have a positive relationship with beauty because there is so much pressure on young girls to be beautiful nowadays (Dove Movement for Self Esteem, 2010).

On their website, they also have a section that allows women to share what they wish they knew when they were 13 years old and it allows girls who look at the Dove website to look at some of the things that other women wish someone would have told them and then learn from it themselves. 

Other messages women wrote

The following commercial is for the Dove Movement for Self Esteem. It shows the various types of the media and feminized images that are displayed to younger girls pretty much anywhere they go. The commercial emphasizes parental awareness and how they should talk to their daughters before letting the media do the talking for them.

Dove Self Esteem Commercial

Girl's Positive Views on Their Bodies

The following quotations are adolescent girl's thoughts on their body from a study I read on body satisfaction and body dissatisfaction and on comparing their bodies to others.

• Danielle: "I know I am fat, but I like that, it doesn't bother me, I can wear what I want to wear and I've got good friends"  (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006). 

• Nicola: "I don't let it put me down, because I am quite happy the way I am. If I wasn't happy I may find comparisons more depressing. I don't keep it on my mind, I don't let it make me too sad" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

Thoughts About Girls in the Media

• Claire: "You see those little stick figures. Personally I think that is stupid and it doesn't influence me. I don't want to be that thin" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

• Olivia: "I think they need to be more realistic- people take the media so seriously-I don't pay much attention to it because I know it's so exaggerated" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

• Tammy: "Positive messages do come out of ads, which display larger women, for example, the Hestia bra ads" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

• Jacqui: "They don't normally have anyone above a size 10, it's kind of saying 'you should be this size; they should be presenting different sizes" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

Survey

I created an anonymous online survey that I had fifteen 8th grade girls, both 13 and 14 year olds, answer six questions that touch on the topic of body image and the media. 
Survey


Questions

1. How old are you?
2. Are you completely satisfied with your physical appearance?
3. Is there anything about your physical appearance that you wish you could change? If so, what is it?
4. Do you ever compare the way you look to women in media (models, actresses, athletes, etc) ?
5. Does looking at advertisements of women lower your self esteem?
6. Would you like to see more average sized models in magazines rather than extremely skinny ones?

Results

1.

13: 40%
14: 60%

2.

Yes: 33.3%
No: 66.7%

3. Responses to: Is there anything about your physical appearance that you wish you could change? If so, what is it?

• "I wish that I wasn't as skinny as I am."
• "I like that I am skinny. I want to look like the older girls do though."
• "Everything. I just want to look like everyone else in my grade and not be the biggest anymore."
• "Boobs. I don't have any. I want bigger ones."
• "Stomach."
• "Hips."
• "No."
• "My face, I have a lot of acne."
• "Boobs they are too big."
• "No. My boyfriend and everyone in school thinks i'm pretty."
• "My face and body."
• "Stomach."
• "Everything."
• "No, I love the way I look."
• "Tummy."

4.

Yes: 60%
No:13.3%
Sometimes: 26.7%

5.

Yes: 80%

No: 20%

6.

Yes: 66.7%

No: 13.3%

Maybe: 20%

• The part of the results that I found to be the most interesting was in relation to the last question and how 13.3% of the girls wouldn't like to see average size models in magazines instead of skinny ones. I would have been interesting to follow up and hear their reasoning behind their answer.

Bibliography

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"About the Movement | Dove Movement for Self-Esteem." Home Page | Dove Movement for Self-Esteem. 2010. Web. 03 May 2011. <http://www.dovemovement.com/movement/about>.

Digital image. Blogspot.com. The Daily WashUp, 20 Feb. 2008. Web. <https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFB8Rfc2dv-nTCKggUTU9C_3CzKMACCeE4iIGamSqQlnZjMIFU9gY9Mpz0fI-Ac2e5yXVtxmVDBMF8zshaSjhvf6MPeE9HEem4yqPy8zMX7WNR5EOpTnGRlu1y0ZmXP_xZFecnfDFV9HM/s400/anorexia.jpg>.

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"Only 2% of Women Think They're Beautiful." Dove. 29 Sept. 2004. Web. 06 Apr. 2011. <http://www.dove.ca/en/#/cfrb/onlytwo.aspx/>.

"Send A Message | Dove Movement for Self-Esteem." Home Page | Dove Movement for Self-Esteem. 2010. Web. 02 May 2011. <http://www.dovemovement.com/send-a-message>.

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In Terry & Urla’s (Eds.) Deviant bodies: Critical perspectives in science and popular culture.  Indianapolis: Indiana University press.

YouTube- Onslaught - Dove Self-Esteem. YouTube- Broadcast Yourself. Dove, 2007. Web. 04 May 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_wIXAP8iAg>.